Click and collect is not a new way of shopping, but it has taken a long time to achieve mainstream popularity. Catalogue stores and electronics stores have offered click and collect for many years, and the service is becoming more and more popular as consumers become more comfortable with online shopping. By Tania Oakey Retail Marketing Director at Cegid,

According to The Multichannel Retail Survey conducted by Econsultancy, 78% of consumers in the UK and US have tried click and collect at least once, and 63% of consumers have used the service in the last year. Some consumers have come to rely on the service, with more than one in seven consumers using it at least once a month.

Consumers appreciate click and collect because it saves them time. They can confirm that a product is in stock, and check the price, before heading to the store. It’s more convenient than mail order, because it ensures that they get the product the same day (maybe even within minutes, if they live or work near the store). There’s no need to stay in for a delivery van, or worry about lost or mis-handled packages. Retailers gain by using click and collect because the service brings consumers into their stores thereby increasing the likelihood of cross-selling and impulse buys as well as of course, offering a better service to their customers.

Econsultancy also report that New Look saw a 79% increase in online sales in Q2 2013, after introducing click and collect, and Argos says that their “check and reserve” service accounts for almost one third of their online sales. Mail order and in-store purchases are still a huge revenue generator for them, but consumers expect to have options, and if a retailer does not offer the options that they want, then they will look elsewhere. Even Boots, best known for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, has enjoyed a lot of success with its online ordering and collection offering.

Supermarkets Embracing Click and Collect

Omnichannel retailing is not limited by sector and has found great success for products ranging from fashion to food with many retailers now broadening their horizons. Two major UK supermarket chains, operating at different ends of the market, are also embracing click and collect.

Asda, a retailer owned by U.S. chain Walmart, plans to roll out a click and collect grocery service to 250 sites across the UK. They will be offering remote collection points in several areas, including one at a park-and-ride in Nottingham, and another on the Isle of Skye. Asda is aiming to place many of their click and collect points in areas where they do not have bricks and mortar stores to extend the reach of their brand.

At the other end of the spectrum, the more aspirational supermarket Waitrose, plans to launch a click and collect service which will allow users to reserve goods online and then pick them up from a locker at their own convenience. This is not the first “grocery convenience” initiative launched by Waitrose. Earlier in the year, the firm set up a drive-through service for groceries, and their parent company John Lewis started offering free returns via corner shops. While some may argue that picking up your click and collect purchases from a locker is too impersonal and combines the problems of shopping online with the inconvenience of having to leave the house to go to the grocery store Waitrose clearly seems to understand what their customers want. According to Marketing Week, Waitrose.com saw a growth in sales of 50% over the three months leading up to the 12th May 2013.

What Does The Future Hold?

Click and collect is the future of retail, for all niches. The technology is there to support the service, and it is a well-known enough option that consumers are now starting to expect it to be available. Mobile web search traffic, one of the biggest drivers of click and collect, is set to outstrip desktop usage by 2015, so it makes sense to cater to mobile users who demand the speed and convenience that click and collect offers. However, there are some costs associated with implementing the service. You need to have the IT infrastructure in place, and you need to have a secure collection point and a clear process for getting the goods off the shelves and preparing them for pick-up. If you frequently make mistakes with tracking your stock, or don’t get the orders ready in time for consumers to pick them up, then running a click and collect service could damage your brand.

Click and collect is already popular in mainland Europe, and now British brands, including Tesco, Waitrose even Boots are getting in on the action too. Waitrose is leading the charge by taking advantage of GPS technology to track customers, and hurry their orders through when the customer is detected as approaching the collection point. The technology will continue to develop more customer-focused innovations over the next couple of years. If you want to implement click and collect within your company, you should expect to have to allocate around five percent of your store’s space to the service, and have employees on hand to manage orders as they come in. Click and collect can account for as much as half of all online purchases, so order volume may be higher than you expect. It pays to get it right first time.

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